


The Horse's Mouth

by Missy



Category: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Genre: Apples, Back to Back Badasses, Canon Compliant, Competence Kink - Won Over by Supreme Skills, Confiding In Animals, Covered with Scars, Dancing Lessons, Dissimilar Characters Geeking Out Together Over A Surprise Shared Interest, Handcuffed Together, Huddling For Warmth, Humor, Monologue, Multi, POV Animal, Road Trips, Secret Relationships, Vignettes, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 18:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16351775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Comet’s got excellent hearing for an equine his age.Or: eventually, as time goes on, everyone ends up confiding in Comet.





	The Horse's Mouth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertScribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/gifts).



Comet’s got excellent hearing for an equine his age. 

Oh, you might look at him and think that he’s lazy and fat – stuffed to the gills with apples in his advancing age – but he can run like a colt, and he’s got ears to listen with and a memory miles long.

He’ll lend those sympathetic ears when he can. To anyone who passes by.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

“Hey.” He’s learned to recognize that duster by now – the tall man with the bowler hat whose name was really James but who insisted on being called Lord Bowler as was his will. “Here. Your treat for the evening.” He shoved the two green apples under Comet’s nose and the horse snorted in response. Then he nudged the apples off of Bowler’s palm, and the fruit rolled and bounced disconsolately into the dust.

“Whatt’re you complaining about? Did you just get outta three hours tied to the most stubborn bounty hunter in California? No, you did not.” True, but Comet had had to carry the both of them, and he pointed this out – though Bowler, naturally, didn’t speak horse the way Brisco could. “My hands still ache from those cuffs.”

He lingered nearby. Comet – never the shy sort – simply bowed his head and plucked the apple up, eating it. “That’s better. You don’t gotta wait for your treat either. Wonder when those pies’re gonna be done – didn’t know Socrates could bake.” Silence. A whuffling sound. “I don’t have to be here. I make plenty on my own, enough for a really fine house, and a whole world that don’t involve hunting for bounties…”

The horse made a non-judgmental sound. Bowler sighed and leaned into his side. “Well,” he said. “Since you ain’t complaining and Brisco’s busy with Miss Dixie…” he leaned against Comet and shoved his face in the horse’s hide.

Comet made a series of annoyed withering noises. “I’m not that cold,” he grumbled, but his hands were like ice, enough to make Comet slap at him with his tail. 

But he wasn’t moving, either.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

The worst thing about his job was the kidnappings. He could tolerate almost anything else about the lifestyle he’d chosen when he’d picked Brisco out of a line of curious cowboys and declared him his human, but the kidnappings were tiresome. Especially when his kidnapper was Pete Hutter, who insisted on substandard stabling and substandard oats.

“Here you are.” Pete poured a bucket of water into Comet’s trough and he made a suspicious sound. “Don’t be looking a gift you in the mouth!” Pete complained. He sat down with a huff. “I found a couple of these hiding under a pile of oats in the back. I don’t suppose you wouldn’t want to join me in a genuine treat?”

Comet immediately bent toward Pete’s hand and plucked the sphere from his palm, crunching it into juicy bits without effort.

“Do you mean to tell me…you love apples too?!” Pete’s whole face lit up. “Why didn’t you say so? Now I prefer a winesap, but these little golden ladies always make my mouth water. Now as for these little deliciousi….”

Comet sighed, but naturally the villain didn’t understand him.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

Dixie let out a deep sigh as she brushed her fingers through Comet’s mane. He was getting used to her presence bit by bit, but then again she wasn’t one to brood out by the stables very often. “Well, it looks like you came through the fight without a single scratch,” she said. Brushing one last little bit of glass away, she finished her inspection. “Don’t worry about Brisco. He and Bowler are…a little occupied.” He wuffled his outrage. “Now don’t get sassy about it! I was sure he’d already told you. Or that it would’ve been obvious. We haven’t been hiding the sugar we’ve been pouring into our bowl, now have we?” She squared her hips and patted his muzzle. Comet automatically lowered his head, allowing himself to be petted. 

He hadn’t liked any of the women Brisco had brought home before Dixie. Not that they weren’t fine women – he assumed that they naturally were, being friends of Brisco’s – but they had passed through like tumbleweeds across the desert. No need to get attached when they weren't going to stick around.

“I know it’s a lot to get used to at once,” she said, “but we do fit together like mashed potatoes and gravy, don’t we?”

Comet whickered. He supposed so, but at the moment he wanted nothing more than a little touch of rest and something sweet.

Dixie knew. She reached into the pocket of her dress.

“For being a good boy,” she said, and held the apple up to his mouth.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

Iphigenia had come in with a whirlwind, and Comet had been at its forefront. She had ridden him backwards with a rifle tucked under her arm and killed away several bandits. Miss Amanda Wickwire had been riding before her, driving Comet to the fastest speed he could manage. He had no idea how the prim lawyer had learned how to shoot, but once she started speaking about helping out Crystal Hawks, he understood a bit more.

“It’s a different world in Oregon,” she informed him. Her long, red hair had been unbound when she arrived, scandalizing her brother. She hadn’t given up the law as Brisco had but had applied herself to the helpless and downtrodden in her little town – and on the weekends she hunted bounties, just like him, along with Crystal and Miss Amanda Wickwire. “No one thinks of me as a lady lawyer there.”

“I suppose it is silly, sitting here talking to a horse,” she admitted. “But I don’t think anyone else would ever understand what it’s like to want to roam like you do.” She pointed to his trough. “There are enough green apples in there to feed the Roman Empire. I do hope you’ll appreciate the taste of them while I make sure the stall’s properly mucked out.”

With that, Comet could agree.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

Whip was clearly embarrassed as he entered the barn, both hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans. “I wouldn’t be doing this normally,” he said, “but Susan invited me to the barn dance, and I don’t know how to do pleasantries the way she deserves.” So he bowed toward Comet. “How do you do, Miss Applewhite? May I have this dance?”

Comet bowed in return, his forelegs carefully folding under him before he returned to his full stature. 

Whip’s eyes widened. “Woah. Brisco didn’t tell me you could do that!”

Whip extended his arms. In his hand – thanks to the slightest of gestures – there was a little green apple propped appealingly. “Speaking of - don’t you go telling Brisco about this.” He places his palms, flat, on either side of Comet’s withers.

And, solemnly, man and horse began to move together in an improvised gavotte. 

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

It wasn’t that Comet didn’t like spending time in Hard Rock, it was that he didn’t have time to listen to all of Sheriff Aaron Viva’s jokes. He had no idea why he kept talking about his little sister, or his childhood in the ghetto, but Comet made agreeable noises as long as Aaron kept him clean and exercised. And stuffed to the gills with apples – though not the little green kind he preferred the most, which were constantly out of season in the florid world of Hard Rock.

Unsurprisingly, as Aaron saddled him up – a saddle borrowed off of Brisco, or perhaps won during a card game, Comet couldn’t tell which but he knew he’d find out soon – he got to jawing. And as soon as he got to jawing, he got to talking about Pete, and when it came to Pete, everything with Aaron seemed to go all out of focus. 

“There’s a whole lotta shaking going on whenever Pete’s in my town. Maybe it’s just the way he handles a gun. Ain’t nobody better with a piece than him.” Comet picked up the metaphor but stringently avoided thinking about it, as he didn’t want to imagine Pete Hutter doing anything at all with his piece. 

Aaron tightened Comet’s saddlebags and double-checked the resistance power of the reins. “I guess that’s why we’re riding into town to pick him up off of that mystery train. I sure have missed delighting in his company.” He patted Comet’s side. “Well, it’s now or never,” Aaron said, and climbed onto Comet’s back.

Hopefully Pete wouldn’t be in too much of a kissing mood when they retrieved him. Comet wasn’t sure he wanted to see them necking in his peripheral vision.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

Ilsa sang whenever she was in Comet’s pen, sang, in fact, throughout his entire stay at No Man’s Land. It didn’t seem to be something she did for anything but her sister or Wickwire but Comet, he supposed, didn’t really count as a human being in her mind. In any event, the blacksmith seemed invested in his well-being, and he didn’t ask why.

She brought apple hand pies, and that was more than satisfying enough for him.

Only on the last day of his little visit did he notice the scars that lined the small of her back as she lifted his saddle into place, a muffled and cheerful ‘oof’ pressed from her lungs. Then he was back in business mode, ready to be on the hunt for Brisco.

And then, quite clearly, he understood why she’d choose to live in a world without men.

 

 

****

**~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~**

 

 

“Well, Comet, that was one heck of a wedding, wasn’t it?” It had been, and he’d been a fine best horse; had stood still and kept the pace and managed not to eat the bouquet. Everyone had been there; Bowler with Socrates; Pete and Aaron; Whip and his new squeeze; even Crystal, Iphigenia and Amanda. They had danced, and Comet had snuck a lot of wedding cake. They’d napped under the hot sun between vows and promises. He was, in fact, fully rested now, waiting to take the couple off to their honeymoon.

It was a strange idea. He, Dixie and Brisco – and Bowler, sometimes, though Comet considered that nothing close to his business these days – they were going to be a family. Brisco scratched him between the ears and let out a sigh. “I know things are going to be different now, but I’m sure you’ll adjust just fine.”

He’d adjusted ages ago, but he didn’t think that was either here nor there. When Brisco held out a green apple, he was actually too full to eat it. “I’ll keep it in the front pocket of the saddlebag. Just tell me when you want it.”

Dixie entered the barn soon after, looking beautiful in a dove grey traveling dress. “Is he all ready to go?”

Brisco grinned and nodded eagerly. “Ready as he’s ever gonna be. I’ve watered and fed him. I suppose he’ll last the next couple of miles.” He snorted. “Oh come on, don’t worry about that. The fillies won’t make fun of you even with a bow on your tail. Comet lowered his head into Brisco’s lap, which was enough to get a little laugh out of Dixie. “Don’t you worry now. We’ll be getting up in the morning and Hester’s Forge is right over the ridge. Short boat ride to Washington.” Then, with gentle firmness to Comet, he added,” We’ll be back in a few weeks.”

It would mark the first time he’d spent any length of time away from Brisco – but he was ready for his own adventure. There were fillies to flirt with and apples to eat beyond the climes of San Francisco, and he wanted to experience every single one of them. He’d tell Brisco about it later, and knew he’d understand.

Comet stayed quite still as Brisco helped Dixie onto the saddle, then let him coax the three of them out of the barn and on the road to the future.

Out in the moonlight, they seemed to be a single, moving unit. There was a secret to that, a special one. And Comet would keep it close to his chest forever.


End file.
